An important step for Community Employment survival but we need your help!
As those of you who have been following our campaign may be aware, we have recently sent a letter to Minister for Social Protection Leo Varadkar regarding the ongoing problems with Community Employment and the severe crisis in the lack of referrals its currently suffering as a result of the part-privitisation of our welfare state due to the JobPath initiative.
The letter was sent not only to the Minister but to his Minister of State, Finian Mc Grath, and every main opposition spokesman for Social Protection. Though the Minister, and his Minister of State have as yet to respond directly to the letter, Sinn Fein’s John Brady and Labour’s Willie Penrose have taken our fight to the Dáil. Deputy Brady has submitted our questions directly to the Minister in written format and his responses will be uploaded to this site in due course.
Deputy Penrose raised the issues in the Dáil with the Minister on April 11th (link) and thanked us as a group for talking about our issues and helping him to seek answers. Deputy Penrose currently sees the gravity of this situation and sees it as an oncoming national crisis for community and childcare groups around the State both in rural and urban areas.
The next step is to raise the issue as a topical debate in the Dáil, where Willie Penrose will attempt to force the issue with Minister Varadkar. He believes that some level of policy change is possible, considering the grave possible outcomes for community services as a result of the ill conceived JobPath Initiative. A topical debate will also greatly raise the media profile of the issue.
Deputy Penrose has asked for any helpful information we can provide as anecdotes to support statements regarding the following issues.
- Lack of referrals
- Incidences were someone was meant to be placed on CE but was reassigned to JobsPath
- Narratives of CE participant hardships (transport costs etc.), no actual name of course is required
- Narratives relating to CE participant success stories
If you would like to help us in our fight to save Community Employment, please email me at:
eoghan.brunkard@gmail.com
This is a great step for the campaign and I think we have a great opportunity with a topical debate. I would like to thank Willie Penrose and John Brady for their support thus far.
Yours Sincerely
Eoghan Brunkard